country_x year happiness_score democracy_index country_code
0 Afghanistan 2006 NaN 30.6 AFG
1 Angola 2006 NaN 24.1 AGO
2 Albania 2006 NaN 59.1 ALB
3 United Arab Emirates 2006 67.3 24.2 ARE
4 Argentina 2006 63.1 66.3 ARG
... ... ... ... ... ...
2496 Vietnam 2020 54.6 29.4 VNM
2497 Yemen 2020 NaN 19.5 YEM
2498 South Africa 2020 49.5 70.5 ZAF
2499 Zambia 2020 48.4 48.6 ZMB
2500 Zimbabwe 2020 31.6 31.6 ZWE

2501 rows × 5 columns

The democracy index (EIU) represents an assesment of the democratic qualitys of a political system. Using data from the Economist Inteligence Unit (EIU), the democracy index is formed by looking at five areas: Electoral pluralism index, Government index, Political participation indexm, Political culture index and Civil liberty index. For more comprehensive information and access to the data, please refer to the link below: https://www.gapminder.org/data/

HIGHEST DEMOCRACY SCORE (2020)

98.1

Norway

LOWEST DEMOCRACY SCORE (2020)

10.8

North Korea

Top 10 countries with the highest democracy scores (2020).

country democracy_index
0 Norway 98.1
1 Iceland 93.7
2 Sweden 92.6
3 New Zealand 92.5
4 Canada 92.4
5 Finland 92.0
6 Denmark 91.5
7 Ireland 90.5
8 Netherlands 89.6
9 Australia 89.6

Top 10 countries with the lowest democracy scores (2020).

country democracy_index
0 North Korea 10.8
1 Congo, Dem. Rep. 11.3
2 Central African Republic 13.2
3 Syria 14.3
4 Chad 15.5
5 Turkmenistan 17.2
6 Lao 17.7
7 Equatorial Guinea 19.2
8 Tajikistan 19.4
9 Libya 19.5

The Happiness Score (WHR) measures the national average of life satisfaction, capturing how happy people feel about their lives. For more comprehensive information and access to the data, please refer to the link below: https://www.gapminder.org/data/

HIGHEST HAPPINESS SCORE (2020)

78.9

Finland

LOWEST HAPPINESS SCORE (2020)

26.3

Lebanon

MEAN HAPPINESS SCORE (2020)

57.27

The joint analysis of the democratic index (EIU) and happiness score (WHR) could show if the democratic index and the subjective life-satisfaction of citizens correlate.

The joint analysis of the democratic index (EIU) and the happiness score (WHR) revealed that a high democratic level generally correlates with a high subjective life-satisfaction of citizens. However, some countries with a rather low democracy index still showed higher happiness scores than countries with a medium democracy index. Moreover, countries with a lower democracy index often show incomplete or entirely missing happiness scores. Both of these phenomena could be caused by potential challenging conditions for citizen surveys in such countries.